The Wisconsin State Assembly moved to limit transgender youth rights on Thursday, passing three bills that ban gender-affirming care for minors and restrict transgender participation in sports. To transform these propositions into governing law, they require advancement through the State Senate and subsequent approval from Governor Tony Evers. However, Governor Evers has publicly declared his opposition to the bills.
The first bill, known as Assembly Bill 465, prevents healthcare providers from engaging in “medical intervention practices” on minors that could adjust the minor’s body to align it with a sex divergent from their biological sex. The term “biological sex” here is defined as the “state of being female or male, grounded in sex organs, chromosomes, and endogenous hormone profiles.”
The second legislation, Assembly Bill 378, commands that teams from the University of Wisconsin strictly be all-male, all-female or coed. Sex, for the provisions of this bill, is determined by a physician at birth and recorded on the birth certificate.
The third law, Assembly Bill 377, likewise obligates each school board, independent charter school, and private school that operate or sponsor sports teams to designate the teams as all-male, all-female or coed. The understanding of sex in this bill mirrors Assembly Bill 378.
Commenting on these controversial bills, Governor Evers commented, “We continue to see harmful anti-LGBTQ rhetoric in Wisconsin. This rhetoric fuelling hate and violence only harms our kids who are already facing significant mental health challenges. We’re going to stop these attacks, and we’re going to do it together.”
The Executive Director of the ACLU of Wisconsin, Dr. Melinda Brennan, also responded with condemnation, stating, “All young people deserve to feel supported, valued, and cared for. Still, the assembly representatives who voted in favour of these bills today sent a message to trans youth that they are the exception—something that couldn’t be further from the truth.”
Now the bills pass to the Wisconsin State Senate for analysis. The move follows a decision last week by a Wisconsin state judge to invalidate a public school district policy that permitted students to transition to a different gender identity at school, even without parental consent or with parental objection.